Giving in the sharing of receiving ...

Christmas 2009 ~ Our first Christmas without Liane, my best friend of 40 years.  Christmas after a year of many dark family challenges.  Need I say that I was not in the mood for the twinkling lights and shiny gift wrapping.  My little family moping around and my usual excitement dormant.  Bill and I went through the motions of purchasing gifts and decorating the home.  I was plagued with melancholy.

One Sunday evening - 12 days before Christmas, we came home after a family outing and found a plastic bag waiting on the front porch.  I picked it up and found a sleeve of twelve cups of pears.  Odd.  Digging through the bag, I noticed a beautiful gift tag made of scrapbook materials and it had a play on the meaning of the first of the 12 days of Christmas ... could not deliver the partridge but here are some pears from its tree.  We had a great laugh and I felt excitement awakening inside.  We tried to guess who could have left this parcel.

The next evening, we were sitting in the kitchen having a late meal when we heard the doorbell ring.  Waiting there was a bag of chocolate "Turtles" with two bars of "Dove" soap taped to it.  Again, a beautiful gift tag explaining about the cruelty of actually delivering doves!  This is so much fun!

And so the days passed and each evening a gift was left on our doorstep!  By the fourth evening, I instructed that no one was to go anywhere near the front door in the evening until after the gift had arrived.  I did not want to know who had rekindled the magic of Christmas for our family.

All the while I got into the finishing touches for everything, gifts getting extra ribbon, baking a little extra sprinkle of icing sugar!  My co-workers would come in the morning to ask about the last evening's gift and try guessing how the next day's interpretation could go.

The giving was catching ... knowing of a youth who had recently taken up living in an apartment I set out to prepare a gift basket.  I had so much fun filling the basket with all the common practical things we don't think twice when we reach for it - dish soap, towels, laundry soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, spices, shampoo, shaving gel and razors ... some of my baking and a food gift card.  The trick was finding a basket large enough to accommodate all of the purchases - YES!  A laundry hamper! 

Spinning through the aisles, making my way to hardware, I passed by Christmas wreaths and had to stop - last time we dropped in, there were no Christmas decorations.  I decided to pick up a wreath for his door and was stumped by the lack of anything youthful ... everything was either too juvenile or too mature.  I started piling my cart with all the fixings to create a wreath that would be unique to this young man. 

Getting home I popped the music in and started putting everything together.  In keeping with the anonymous gift theme, armed with my 6'2" elf we made our way to this youth's apartment.  Timing it with his work schedule, we waited to see him coming home and quietly made our way to his door to deposit our gift.  Bill gave a good solid knock on the door and we rushed out of the building, running to the car and spun off into the crisp evening.  A few days later, the news of the gift made its way to us.  My heart melted when I saw the twinkle in Bill's eyes and his moustache twitching with amusement.

Every year, the Agency celebrates a Youths' Christmas Dinner.  That year, it happen to be on the same evening as our Board meeting.  There I sat with some of the board members, telling them all about the wonderful gifts we were receiving.  I had tears in my eyes when I spoke of just how wonderful and timely this all was and shared that the last gift we had received were two beautiful scrolls that spoke of the meaning of Christmas and another that spoke of why they had chosen to share with our family. 

On Christmas Eve, I set out to purchase a Christmas card and some cardstock so that I could leave a message on our door, thanking whomever for the wonderful gift we had received in their acknowledgement of what we mean to them.  I sat decorating the cardstock and made a pocket to hold our card.  We posted the cardstock on our door just in case they were to remain anonymous.  Soaking in the tub I heard the doorbell ring.  Loud voices and hearty laughter drifted upstairs.  I hurried to make my way downstairs.

Sitting there was the family who had brought so much joy to our family.  They came with the last of the gifts.  Sitting there was a beautiful family ~ our sons being friends since JK, Mom being also a Board member ... the same one who had shared my tears when I spoke of this wonderful Christmas gift!